


Like Me For Me

by pirateherokillian (Pirateherokillian)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Snowing is referenced, past underage alcohol use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29004951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pirateherokillian/pseuds/pirateherokillian
Summary: She remembers a time when her reputation had never been worse. And yet there he'd always been.
Relationships: Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan
Comments: 9
Kudos: 52





	Like Me For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Written for CSJJ 2021. I've been wanting to write this story, inspired by Taylor Swift's 'Delicate' and [this](https://www.instagram.com/p/B9TpgXlpYVY/) Killian manip, for so long now and January Joy gave me the perfect opportunity to do it! It's like the sweetest of marshmallow fluff with a sprinkling of angst. I hope you all enjoy!

It was while on the hunt for a picture for her soon-to-be sister-in-law that she found another photo entirely. The sight of it had Emma gasping as if she’d woken up from a hazy, unsettling dream. One that she could hardly remember the details of, but knew she’d very much been a part of all the same. 

It jolted her back to a time when her life had been a bit up-in-the-air, to put it mildly. In full truth, she’d been living through an active trainwreck, much of it her own making and her own mistakes. Mistakes that she had pretty much run away from when she’d left Storybrooke, her adopted home since she’d been a pre-teen, without much warning and showed up on her brother’s apartment doorstep in Boston. 

He hadn’t been happy to see her, protective Big Brother Mode kicking in at the site of his barely legal little sister standing at his front door with a duffle bag and a waning, pathetic smile. It took every ounce of Emma’s persuasive abilities to stop him from calling up their mother, Ruth, and escorting her back to the bus station she’d just come from. 

But she’d managed to pull it off, just barely, and had found herself crashing on David’s couch as she tried to nurse the wounds of a broken heart and broken life. Only just eighteen, only just out of juvie, only just on the other end of a thievery charge that was never hers to begin with. Everyone had warned her to stay away from Storybrooke’s bad boy Neal Cassidy, but Emma was stubborn and did what she wanted. 

Even if it ultimately ended up biting her in the ass. 

She’d been sitting there, thinking of that proverbial ass-biting and how she’d likely just fucked up again, when a heavy weight had thrown itself down next to her on the couch. 

“Don’t worry that pretty head of yours too much, love,” Her brother’s then roommate said, amusement coloring his British accent. “David must always have a patronizing cause to be arrogant about. You just happened to be it today.”

“You don’t mind if I stay?” She had asked quietly, hesitantly in return. She had turned her head to look at him, at Killian Jones, her green eyes wide and sad. 

He lowered the bottle of beer he had brought with him over to the couch from his lips, swallowing as he took her in. She remembered the squirmy feeling that stirred in her belly– those intense blue eyes gazing at her, assessing her. 

Killian had answered with a shrug, passing the bottle her way. “Us lost ones have to stick together, aye?” 

Amid all the chaos, all the fuck-ups, all the mess that her life had become then, Emma could so easily recall the warmth that had spread across her chest at the unapologetic acceptance Killian had given her then. She’d only met him a couple of times before that day, and yet he had embraced her so openly. Like he saw her beyond all the mistakes. 

She remembered that day. And many of the days after when Killian had been there for her like nobody else wanted to be. She remembered him letting her rant about her latest argument with David over her life. She remembered him stepping in between her and her brother, sometimes even physically. She remembered the strain it had put on his friendship with David. She remembered so much of that time.

And yet, the details surrounding how such a picture of Killian had ended up on her phone. How she couldn’t possibly forget something so…

Emma let out a frustrated sound and rose from where she had been sitting on her bedroom floor. Papers were scattered all about, notes and clippings and receipts that only a bride would entrust to her maid of honor. She tipped-toed her way around the mess and out of the room. Determined, she marched down the hall and right out the back door, out into the damp drizzle that had been coming down all morning. Right into the boathouse that sat at the back of the property. 

“When was this?”

There was a thump from the half-finished wooden hull sitting a few feet from where Emma had stopped. “Bloody hell, love…” Killian straightened himself up, rubbing at the back of his head. “It’s customary to announce yourself before screaming random questions…” He gave her a glare that held no heat as he tossed the scrap of sandpaper in his other hand onto the table near where he was working. 

“Hi, I’m Emma…” She curtsied sassily before stomping towards him with her phone held up. “And I wanna know when this was!”

Killian was staring at her feet as she got closer to him. “Emma, where are your damn shoes?! It’s practically freezing out here.” 

“Don’t look at my feet,” Emma waved him off, shoving her phone right up into his face. “Look at the phone and tell me about this picture

Blinking and jerking his head back, Killian sighed as he took the phone from her and gave the screen a glance. He smiled softly and chuckled, raising an eyebrow as he looked back up at her with amusement. “Ah, yes…” He reached up and brushed some damp hair behind her ear. “I’m not surprised you don’t remember this one.”

“You still didn’t answer the question!”

Killian laughed again and took her hand in his. “Come here…” He sighed as he pulled her over to the wooden chair sitting a few feet away. Throwing himself down into much like he had all those years ago on that couch, he pulled Emma down into his lap. She settled easily there, wiggling just a bit to emphasize she was ready for his story time. 

“You see, this was the night…” Killian held the phone out to her so she could take one end while he continued to cling to the other. “A fiery lass I’m quite fond of got her GED and we were celebrating the occasion.” 

Emma blushed as to the reality of  _ why _ she couldn’t remember the picture settled in. “Oh.”

“Oh indeed.” Killian teased as he brushed his nose along her cheek. “Still just shy of being able to go out and imbibe legally, we decided to have a grand celebration in our apartment. She was quite into her cups when she took this photo. Was mumbling something about me having a pretty head too and wanting to document the moment, so she’d always remember.”

“That’s…” Emma shook her head. “Well, you did...do… have that… a pretty head, I mean.” She could feel the embarrassment bubbling up in her gut. 

“She  _ also _ said, just before the whole pretty head remark” Killian continued. “That she loved me because I had always been there for her, even when nobody else could stand her, and she wasn’t sure if that was ‘cool’ to say, but she was gonna say it anyways.”

Emma looked at him, her eyes wide. “I… did?”

“Aye,” Killian nodded sagely before he shook his head and frowned. “She then proceeded to vomit all over our balcony after taking this picture…” He pursed his lips in mock-disgust.

Groaning, Emma went to shove off of his lap but he held her firmly in place. “Ah ah, I’m not quite finished…” He pressed a kiss to her cheek even as she pouted down at the phone. “You know what I think about when I see this picture?”

“Me barfing cheap wine coolers into your lap?” Emma quipped petulantly. She was already thinking maybe she should delete the picture…

“How much I was ready to marry you that night.” Killian whispered to her. 

It was Emma’s turn to make a disgusted face. “You can’t be serious.”

Killian nodded when she looked at him incredulously. “Oh I very much can be. And I am. I knew, right in  _ this _ moment,” he tapped at the screen. “That Emma Swan was the woman I was going to marry. And even  _ after _ she was ‘barfing cheap wine coolers into my lap’ and was crying pathetically on our living room floor,” Emma sighed again and rolled her eyes, looking away from him. He nudged her a little to get her attention once more, letting the phone rest in her lap so he could take up her left hand, his thumb brushing over the wedding band there. “I knew.”

Emma stared at him, tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. “Us lost ones stick together?”

Killian grinned, pressing a kiss lightly against her lips. “That’s right.” He continued to smile as he pulled back. 

Sniffing loudly, Emma smiled softly and looked down at her phone. “That’s gross… and romantic.” She wiped at her eyes and glanced back at him. “You’re really fucking cheesy, you know that?”

Quirking an eyebrow again, Killian shrugged. “You married me.” He patted at her thigh, hoisting her up to her feet. “And as your cheesy husband, I believe it’s my job to haul you inside and into a nice warm bath before you catch your death,” He sighed as he looked at her still bare feet and shook his head, taking her hand in his and he started to lead her out of the boathouse. 

“No bloody shoes,” He muttered as he tugged her back towards the big blue house they’d only just move into a few months before. “Impossible woman.”

Emma smiled as she let herself be pulled along. “You married me.” She quipped back, smiling even bigger as Killian mumbled about ‘must’ve lost my damn mind’. She looked down at her phone in her other hand, tapping at the little heart at the bottom of the picture still taking up the screen.

It was a memory she wasn’t going to forget again anytime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come chat with me about this story, or any of my other work, on my socials! My Tumblr is [pirateherokillian](http://pirateherokillian.tumblr.com) and my Twitter is [pirateherojones](http://twitter.com/pirateherojones)


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